1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to liquid containing chambers that supply liquid to liquid ejecting apparatuses, and relates to liquid ejecting apparatuses.
2. Related Art
In liquid ejecting apparatuses such as ink jet recording apparatuses, ink jet textile printing apparatuses and microdispensers, a liquid such as ink is supplied from a liquid containing chamber that contains liquid, and then ejected. As an example of such a liquid which is contained in a containing chamber, pigment ink may be used. The pigment ink is manufactured by dispersing pigment particles in a dispersion medium. Therefore, pigment particles may settle over time, leading to variation in the concentration of the pigment ink.
JP-A-2006-188008 discloses a technique of reducing the variation in the concentration of the pigment ink, in which air is enclosed in a reservoir (also referred to as “liquid container”) that contains the pigment ink, and then an ink cartridge is reciprocated so as to permit the movement of ink in the reservoir, thereby causing stirring of ink.
Further, JP-A-2007-230189 and JP-A-2006-44153 disclose a technique of reducing the variation in the concentration of the pigment ink, in which a stirring member and a support member for rotatably supporting the stirring member are provided, wherein ink is stirred by the stirring member.
However, when ink is stirred with air which is enclosed in the reservoir, the extent to which ink is moved by air (range of movement) is limited, therefore the pigment ink with the higher concentration, which is located vertically below and at the bottom of the reservoir, may not become stirred. Particularly, when the reservoir is elongated in the vertical direction, it is difficult to stir the pigment ink located at the bottom of the reservoir. On the other hand, when ink is stirred by means of a stirring member, the larger the reservoir is, the larger the stirring member needs to be in order to obtain a stirring effect. As a result, the cost of the ink cartridge may be increased. These problems are present not only in ink cartridges, but also in liquid containing chambers in general that contain a dispersion substance with variation in concentration.
Therefore, the invention seeks to solve at least part of the above problems, reducing the variation in the concentration of the liquid in the liquid container by stirring liquid in a liquid container with a stirring member having a more compact size.